Let’s talk about what it takes to achieve success in your fitness and martial art training…
Here is the Warrior Fitness simple formula for training success:
Specific Training + Frequent Practice = RESULTS
Here’s an example of my Daily Personal Practice from earlier in the week that works on specific movement patterns I am trying to enhance and strengthen…
Which culminated in a new exercise I created based on those skills and movement patterns… 🙂
The Sword and Shield Protocol
To perform the exercise, snatch a kettlebell and hold in overhead carry. Clean a club with the other hand and perform mills while stabilizing the kettlebell overhead. Give it a try and let me know how you do.
Assuming you are eating clean 6 days a week, your body – and your fat loss! – can benefit from a cheat day once a week.
Reducing calories and carbs during the week begins to lower levels of Leptin, the master fat-burning hormone in your body. When Leptin levels plummet, your fat loss halts. By performing a strategic weekly re-feed (cheat day) we once again raise the body’s Leptin levels and insure that we continue burning fat like a champ instead of plateauing and grinding to a screeching, frustrating halt.
You will notice below that I add in certain elements throughout the day to further blunt the effects of my eating binge even more. While I do recommend that my clients take a cheat day once a week, there is no need to go as crazy and I did below… This was merely an experiment to prove that it works even when going waaay overboard!
My Saturday – Now Known as “FAT-URDAY” Binge
First off, thanks to my clients Alex and Jaime D. for coining the term “fat-urday”. 🙂
Prior to breakfast – 30 bodyweight squats, 10 push-ups
3 coconut donuts, 8 oz grapefruit juice, coffee with 1 tbs coconut oil: 1100Â calories
Prior to breakfast #2 – 30 bodyweight squats, 10 push-ups
4 waffles with grassfed butter and organic maple syrup: 800 calories
Kombucha: 30 calories
1 cup of blueberry yogurt: 150 calories
Tres Leches cake (did not eat whole thing): approx. 280 calories
After the cake – 10 minute cold shower
Prior to dinner – 30 bodyweight squats, 10 push-ups
Double cheeseburger on a bun with fried egg and bacon plus spinach, mushrooms, and onions: 1,000 calories
Prior to bed – 30 bodyweight squats, 10 push-ups, followed by 10 minute cold shower
For a grand total of 4,885 calories!
The end result? I lost weight!
Friday morning weight: 192 lbs
Monday morning weight: 191.4 lbs
Why does this work? Because there are many more factors involved in fat loss than merely calories in/calories out. If you are wasting your time counting calories and still not getting the results you want, or not getting them fast enough, perhaps there’s more to it… 🙂
Want to schedule a FREE 10 Minute Turbo Coaching Call with me to discuss your fitness goals?
Normally when people ask me about post workout drinks I tell them a story of how supplement companies spent tons of money doing research to formulate the most optimal ratio of protein to carbohydrate for recovery and muscle building.
They came up with a very specific ratio which was promptly used to engineer very expensive, “scientifically-formulated” post workout recovery drinks.
People spent tons of money on them until some bright fellow (or lady, I’m not sure which) realized that the perfectly formulated, highly researched and studied, scientific ratio of protein to carb was the exact same ratio as found in an ordinary bottle of chocolate milk!! 🙂
Nothing new under the sun has been seen in the realm of post workout supplements since.
Until now…
Jon’s Super Secret Post Workout Shake Recipe
1 scoop Grass fed Whey Protein Powder (any flavor)
I just finished up my morning practice of breathing exercises so this seems the perfect time to sit down and write about Logan Christopher’s latest book release, Upgrade Your Breath.
I have known Logan for several years now and am proud to say that I own almost every one of his programs. Each one is engaging, thought provoking and well researched, not to mention chock full of incredible information and great exercises. The man clearly knows his stuff AND trains it relentlessly.
His newest program, Upgrade Your Breath is no exception. This book delivers!!
As you might know, I am no stranger to breathing exercises. I have been learning, training, and teaching them for over a decade now. They form the basis for my own system of training and I absolutely believe that breathing exercises are the foundation of health and fitness.
Logan’s book is an excellent resource on the subject of breathing. He provides a great number of practical and effective exercises broken down the exercises into 7 different categories. The instructions are clear and easy to follow instructions, and the usage, application and benefits of each one are discussed.
Additionally he also brings out his own unique perspective in the form of anecdotes and tips from Oldtime Strongmen, many of whom used breathing exercises to go from weak to strong and from sickly to healthy. My favorite, and Logan’s too, is the Mighty Atom!
1. Deep Breathing Exercises
2. Breathing for Lung Capacity
3. Breathing for Strength
4. Breathing for Endurance
5. Breathing for Relaxation
6. Breathing for Flexibility
7. Breathing for Energy Circulation
This book is a great resource for anyone interested in bettering their health and improving ALL aspects of fitness! I highly recommend it!
BONUS!
As an added bonus for all those who pick up Logan’s Upgrade Your Breath book, I will throw in my program, Evolve Your Breathing (regularly $37) for just $10!! Â All you need to do is email me (WFT.Jon.Haas@gmail.com) your receipt and I’ll send you a link for the discounted program!
Tempering is the process by which something is made stronger, harder, and more durable. In the case of steel, it is the process of reheating and cooling it off that improves the hardness and elasticity of the metal. The same process can be used to forge a stronger, healthier, more resilient body!
“Hormesis, a word coined by pharmacologists, is when a small dose of a harmful substance is actually beneficial for the organism, acting as a medicine. A little bit of the otherwise offending substance, not too much, acts to benefit the organism and make it better overall as it triggers some overreaction… gains from harm.”
Just as repeated exposure to the right amount of strength training, progressively increased through proper programming builds muscle, increases energy and endurance, and makes the body stronger overall while completely over doing it simply accelerates the breakdown of the system.  Exposure to cold acts in a similar manner.
Short term cold exposure, incrementally increased over time provides an assortment of benefits not found in any other form of training.
This process of conditioning through the gradual and continued exposure to stress within a controlled dynamic is known as “Stress Inoculation”.
Benefits of Cold Exposure Training
Reduces inflammation
Increased fat burning through cold thermogenesis
Improved immune system function
Boosts testosterone
Increased energy and focus
Increased athletic performance
Faster recovery
Improved sleep
Mental toughness
How to Do Cold Exposure Training
Cold exposure training doesn’t have to be extreme. In fact, since it’s a conditioning process – tempering – in the beginning it is better done in small, incremental doses. You can start simply by turning the water in the shower to cold for 30 seconds and slowly increasing exposure for up to 5 or 10 minutes. Eventually work your way up to stepping right into an ice cold shower first thing in the morning – no hot water!
Another way to gradually build up cold exposure is to walk around outside in the winter time without a jacket for short periods of time until it becomes tolerable. Work your way up to wearing just a t-shirt and shorts while walking around in the cold. Sure you’ll get funny looks, but it’s worth it!
Ready to kick it up a notch?
Try an ice bath or cold water swimming in a pool, lake, or ocean – Polar Bear Plunge, anyone??
And, of course there’s always cold water dousing, made famous in the past few years by practitioners of Russian Martial Art, but also practiced by many other martial artists (Morihei Ueshiba, anyone?) and religious ascetics, alike. The practice itself is very simple, but the psychological hurdles one has to jump through in order to consistently carry it out are immense – thus the huge mental toughness component that goes into it!
Cold Water Dousing Procedure
Fill up a bucket of cold water
Go outside in your bathing suit and stand on the grass
Slowly dump said bucket of cold water over your head
Breath deep and enjoy the rush of heat and energy!!
Don’t worry, you won’t get sick – colds are caused by viruses, not being cold!
Here’s me cold water dousing in the snow here in NJ last weekend…
And some breathing exercises and push-ups in the snow…
The Iceman
Wim Hof has set 21 world records involving cold exposure from running a marathon in his shorts above the arctic circle to running a full marathon in Namib desert without water consumption to climbing Mt. Everest in only shorts, to being immersed in ice for over an hour. In his book, Becoming the Iceman, Wim states, “The cold is a noble force… The cold forces me to generate heat. It makes me feel alive.”
Wim has also scientifically proven that his method of cold exposure, combined with breathing exercises, allows anyone to access and gain conscious control over autonomic processes, such as the immune system!
Both the Russian Martial Arts and Wim Hof, The Iceman, place an immense importance on breathing exercises as essential components of their health systems. The breath is used to fully oxygenate the body, generate heat and energy, and increase tolerance to stress and pain.
Check out the Vice documentary on The Iceman to see how far cold exposure training can go!
Why should you chose to train Warrior Fitness Training versus any other type of fitness program out there, including making no choice and doing nothing?
Training for the Total Human
Warrior Fitness is the product of decades of training in the martial arts and the art of strength. In its simplest form Warrior Fitness is a distilled and synthesized blend of the very best training methodologies for becoming a fitness renaissance man or woman. Due to its synergistic nature, the seamless integrated whole of the system is vastly superior and greater than the sum of its parts. In short, Warrior Fitness has become a one-stop-shop for building a better human – physically stronger, tougher – resistant to failures, more enduring, flexible, mobile, and extremely capable. The warrior is mentally tough. Greater than robustness or resilience, the Warrior Fitness Training System is a portal to becoming antifragile.
The system allows the practitioner to minimize training time while maximizing the training effects, i.e. – results.
Warrior Fitness can be approached from different directions…
The Path of Strength & Conditioning
building muscle,
real world whole body strength,
nonstop endurance,
power generation,
explosive movement, etc.
The Path of Health
ancestral nutrition,
fat loss,
natural hormone optimization for women,
increased testosterone and growth hormone for men,
energy work – breathing exercises,
stress conversion,
increased energy,
recovery from injury,
increased flexibility and range of motion, etc.
The Path of Martial Art
combat conditioning,
performance enhancement,
self-defense and defending others,
real world functional strength and conditioning,
dynamic balance and stability,
internal power, etc.
No matter where you enter from – All paths ultimately lead to strength; to becoming the strongest most capable version of yourself.
Why Strength?
When ranking the hierarchy of fitness qualities, the Warrior Fitness system puts an emphasis on strength as the highest ability.
Why?
Simply because all other fitness qualities flow from strength. When one is stronger everything is easier. Greater strength enables one to be more energy efficient as tasks and challenges alike require a lesser expenditure of energy the stronger one becomes. What is endurance other than the continued ability to exert strength?
Get Stronger as You Get Older – The Over 40 Warrior
As of this writing I am 43 years old. I am stronger, much better conditioned, more resilient, and healthier now than I was at 23! Why? Because as a lifelong martial artist and physical culturist I have cracked the code on living stronger as I get older – and I want to share ALL my hard won knowledge with you!
How do you burn fat and build muscle at the same time?
How do you optimize testosterone levels?
How do you program workout intensity along with rest and recovery training to avoid plateaus and consistently make progress?
How do you properly fuel your body for optimal performance?
How do you recover, coordinate, and refine flexibility and range of motion?
How do you wake up with energy and vigor for attacking your day?
How do you put it all together to get maximal results in minimal time?
I firmly believe that I am in my physical prime and will continue to get stronger as I grow older. Others may believe that they are in a state of decline and getting weaker as they age… not so for the warrior.
Remember – the mind navigates the body.
What you believe to be true, is true.  In fact, research tells us that people do not stop moving because they get older, they get older because they stop moving. The ability to build strength and muscle does not decline – you simply have to know how to combine correct physical training, optimal nutrition, and supplementation with the correct mental training – belief, outlook, focus, concentration, visualization, etc. to become truly limitless.
Who is Warrior Fitness for?
For the Dad who wants to be in the best shape of his life in order to play with his kids and set an example of a healthy lifestyle that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,
for the Mom who, after a long day at work wants to de-stress with a brief, but intense workout that won’t leave her exhausted,
for the businessman who finds his waistline expanding, his health lacking, muscle sagging, and wants to do something about it,
for the performer who needs to control her breathing and nervousness before getting on stage,
for the amateur athlete or weekend warrior who realizes that the daily aches and pains are getting worse as they get older and want to be stronger, healthier, and more capable as they get older,
for the regular people who have lives and families and other hobbies and don’t want to spend all day in the gym yet are ready for something more than just an ordinary workout,
for the unconventional fitness enthusiast who doesn’t desire the globo commercial gym scene, and is looking for a low-tech/high yield approach to fitness,
for the fitness nut who’s tired of the same old treadmill and is looking for something extraordinary,
And, of course for the martial artist who wants to get back into fighting fit shape while enhancing their martial art’s effectiveness by increasing how efficiently they move…
It’s For YOU…
Men, if you picked up your FREE copy of my book, Dad Strength, you know that men, in general, are getting weaker. We can counteract that. I can fix it. YOU can become the strong, Alpha-Male warrior you were always meant to be. You CAN get stronger every day.
Want to talk? Sign up HERE for a free 10-minute Turbo Coaching Call to discuss your goals and how I can help you become the strongest, most capable version of yourself.
When I began this journey back in 2008 my only students were martial artists. My first book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, was written for martial artists. But since then I have radically expanded my own training (to be discussed later) and my student base. My clients come from all walks of life, age range, gender, and level of physical activity.
My vision has expanded way beyond just the martial one with which I started. My mission has changed.
So with all these changes going on, I began to rethink my original plan for Warrior Fitness and decided that maybe it was time to take a different path and dissolve Warrior Fitness in favor of something more suited to those changes…
Was This The End?
NOPE.
I couldn’t do it. 🙂
As you are all well aware, we currently live in extremely trying and more dangerous times. As a friend recently reminded me in an email conversation, we need MORE warriors going forward, not less.
Therefore 2016 will not be the end of Warrior Fitness, but a new beginning…
A start to something much broader in scope, more comprehensive, and much, much more life changing and affirming – Warrior Fitness Reborn “Training for the Total Human”
As I mentioned above, my mission has changed. Back in 2008 when all this first started my only goal was to improve the functional ability and performance of myself as a martial artist and that of my students through specific physical preparedness training, IE – Warrior Fitness. This I accomplished for martial artists all across the world through my programs such as Martial Power, Ninja Missions, and many others. I began to integrate my internal power training practices with strength training in 2015 through my Integrated Strength Program. By all accounts I had accomplished what I set out to do, very successfully I might add, but to me there was still something missing.
I alluded to it this past summer when I opened up and talked about why I got started down the road as a fitness professional. You can watch it below in my origin story.
My Origin Story
My mission has become broader, and yet more clearly defined. My current work has taken on a more important, more meaningful quality – not that teaching someone how to be a bad-ass, powerhouse of a martial artist isn’t meaningful anymore, it most definitely is!! 🙂
I will layout the new mission of Warrior Fitness Reborn in full detail in future articles, but for now some of it can be inferred from the short piece below on Physical Confidence.
Physical Confidence
There is a certain kind of confidence that comes from being strong. I call it physical confidence.
It’s different than the confidence one feels by being smart, or being good at a job, or being in a secure, loving relationship.
With physical confidence you stand straighter and walk taller. Your head is up and scanning the horizon rather than being bowed and staring at the floor. You look people in the eye and with a nod, acknowledge them and let them know you respect them.
There’s a certain presence, a kind of knowing awareness, about a person with physical confidence. People somehow know that if the proverbial sh*t ever hit the fan while you were there, you would take care of it.
Strength holds us together. Strength is a quiet preparedness wielded by those who watch over and protect others. Strength and capability together create physical confidence. One does not come without the other.
And, how do we instill that Physical Confidence, you ask… ?
Warrior Fitness Coaching Programs
Men, if you picked up your FREE copy of my book, Dad Strength, you know that men, in general, are getting weaker. We can counteract that. I can fix it. YOU can become the strong, Alpha-Male warrior you were always meant to be. You CAN get stronger every day. Find out if you are a good fit for my NEW Warrior Fitness Coaching Program for Men <<===
Want to talk? Sign up HERE for a free 10-minute Turbo Coaching Call to discuss your goals and how I can help you become the strongest, most capable version of yourself.
I usually avoid going to shopping malls at all costs. Or, if I have to go to a particular store I’m usually in and out as fast as possible. However, this past Saturday night found me walking around a local mall with my Dad waiting for my Mom and youngest daughter to get out of a movie.
While we walked around and discussed our mutual disdain for shopping – hey, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! – I people watched.
As usual when I people watch the general population, I got upset. Seeing people from all ages and walks of life so totally out of shape makes me sad. It used to make me angry – I got over that. (progress, right?) Now it makes me sad.
There is absolutely no reason that people who are otherwise intelligent, successful, knowledgeable, loving, and driven in ALL other aspects of their lives should be so completely neglectful of arguable the most important aspect of all, their health & fitness.
Now as we begin this new year of 2016 with a clean slate, isn’t it time to take care of the one thing that should matter the most? YOU!
How can you take care of others when you allow your own body to break down? How can you be the most effective parent, student, worker, teacher, whatever when you lack the energy and strength???
I have done ALL the programming for you. I will hand you a step-by-step plan to become the most capable, strongest version of yourself in 2016. I will coach you and guide you every step of the way. But YOU must take the first step and begin it HERE.
The clock is running down on this offer, my friends. Get on it. You will NOT regret it.
You are already strong enough to lift a car. Did you know that? It’s true.
So why can’t you access that strength all the time?
The reason is that your nervous system limits the amount of strength you can use in every day life. If you were truly able to access 100% of the muscular strength you are capable of your muscles would literally tear themselves from attachment points and break bones. Â Having a limit in this case is a good thing!
However, the limits are set startlingly low. Most people only have access to about 20-30% of their full potential, even when trying their hardest.
So how do you access more strength?
Well, there are many different methods to do it. Today, we will cover just one – getting over FEAR.
F.E.A.R can be rewritten as an acronym – False Evidence Appearing Real.
This was the case for one of my clients whenever he went for a max effort lift on his bench press. He was only able to bench 125 lbs even though I knew he was much, much stronger and more capable!
After discussing it with him, he told me that even though he knew I was standing right behind him spotting him every rep, he was still afraid of getting stuck under the bar. This False Evidence Appearing Real was limiting his strength. Because he was afraid, his nervous system was literally slamming on the breaks and cutting his strength potential way back.
So how did we fix it?
I set up the bench in the squat rack and set the pins right over his chest. Now there was absolutely no possibility of him getting stuck under the bar.
So what happened?
With the FEAR gone, he was able to access much more of his strength potential and hit 165 lbs for 2 reps – a 40 lbs increase!!!
Oh, and by the way, he is in his early 70’s!! Â So again, what is YOUR excuse?
You know you should workout on a consistent basis, but sometimes the motivation just isn’t there. Here’s a quick primer on how to set yourself up for success.
1) Â Have a Goal.
2) Follow a Program. (read “Which Program is Best for You”) It’s much easier to do the work if you know in advance exactly what you are supposed to be doing for each training session and how it is progressing you towards your main goal.  Remember – random exercise leads to random results!
3) Make Training Your Default Status. Â Read THIS if you want to know whether or not to train when sick or injured.
4) Commit to it. Decide beforehand that you ARE going to train. There is no “maybe”…
5) Have a Pre-Workout Ritual. This will get you in state.
To give you an idea of what a pre-workout ritual looks like here’s mine. Â Feel free to model or copy it outright, whatever works to get you training!!
My Pre-Workout Ritual
1) Get into my workout shorts and t-shirt (yes, I wash them…)
2) Take Hercules Pre-Workout Formula. You will feel the rush of the powerful herbs coursing through your system!
3) Crank up workout music. Currently my music anchor is “Invincible” by TOOL.
4) Stand tall, breathe deep, walk powerfully. Visualize yourself performing the workout. This, along with the Hercules Formula, gets my energy building and heart pumping.
5) Perform my general movement preparation – joint mobility work and resistance band exercises.
6) DO THE BLOODY WORK!!
I hope this is helpful.  Please drop a comment and let me know if you have any questions!
Need more help?
Grab over a year’s worth of training at 87% off – Â all of the details can be hound HEREÂ <<==
 plus 1 tablespoon of 
, Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses a process called hormesis:
, Wim states, “The cold is a noble force… The cold forces me to generate heat. It makes me feel alive.”
